Fort Bliss soldiers and other customers line up to order gourmet hamburgers at the Create Gourmet Eats truck in the Walgreens parking lot at Montana and Yarbrough. The truck operated at the spot for several month's with Walgreen's management's permission, but was ordered off the lot last week after someone complained to the store's corporate office, the truck owner said. (Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times)

Mobile food vendors can operate easier in El Paso after a lawsuit prompted the City Council last year to remove some restrictions that hindered the mobile operators.

But the Downtown, not included in the lawsuit, continues to be a restricted market for wandering food trucks. Most city parks are also restricted to contracted vendors.

Steven Hernandez, who for almost a year has operated Create Gourmet Eats, a gourmet hamburger and fries truck, said he began operating in Downtown after city regulations were revised last April because he thought it was permitted. He began building a following Downtown until a police officer one day late last year forced him to leave a parking spot along San Jacinto Plaza, he said.

"I had a 10-person line (at the time), and I couldn't serve them. People were mad; some came from Cielo Vista and the West Side, and I had to cancel that day," Hernandez recalled. "I'd like to be Downtown. It's just a great place, not only for myself but for other people (vendors)."

Hernandez said he was not given specific reasons for his ejection.

Here's the reason:

The city requires mobile food vendors to get a special permit from the City Council to operate Downtown.

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It costs $200 to apply for one, and if it's approved by council, costs $2,000 a year, said Ted Marquez, deputy director of the city Department of Transportation, which handles part of the city's mobile vending regulations.

One company currently has a special permit to operate food carts Downtown. The City Council in 2010 approved a special five-year permit, with an optional five-year renewal, to Big Boy Ice Cream to operate 19 food carts at various Downtown locations. Big Boy is paying the city from $21,200 to $22,946 a year, or a total of $110,323 over five years for the permit. Big Boy also has a separate permit with the city Parks and Recreation Department to operate inside San Jacinto Plaza.

Marquez said no other food vendors have applied for a Downtown permit. That may be because several food vendors and even some city officials told the El Paso Times they believe the Big Boy permit doesn't allow other mobile food vendors to operate Downtown. But Marquez said the Big Boy license doesn't restrict food trucks from getting permits for specific Downtown locations.

Veronica Soto, executive director of the El Paso Downtown Management District, a quasi-city agency that controls money generated from a special Downtown property tax, said district officials would like to see some food trucks operating Downtown.

"We'd be in favor of streamlining the (permit) process to help that happen," Soto said.

Food trucks would add to the "uniqueness of the Downtown experience," she said.

City Rep. Steve Ortega said he'd be "totally receptive" to approving permits to get some food trucks Downtown.

"We need to get more dining options Downtown," Ortega said.

He said he'd like to see a food park established Downtown so mobile food vendors could operate as is done in Austin and many other cities around the country.

El Paso businessman Lane Gaddy said he's been working for about six months to locate a suitable area somewhere in El Paso to open a food park with probably five or six vendors. They could operate from trucks, trailers or carts, he said.

"There's probably about 30 (food) parks in Austin," said Gaddy, who's looked at some Austin parks to get ideas.

Gaddy said it's difficult to find a spot Downtown that makes economic sense. He's looking on the East Side and on Mesa on the West Side, he said.

"Ideally we need at least a half-acre to three-quarters of an acre," Gaddy said. "It could be a vacant dirt lot to a more extensive development with bathrooms."

Several mobile food vendors said they'd like to see food parks open in El Paso.

"I'd love to have a mobile food park here," said Jessie Peña, owner of Tacoholics, an almost 2-year-old taco truck. "They have big ones in Portland and Austin. I think it would work where there is more population - the East Side or West Side - or maybe a couple of parks. It would be kind of cool."

Ian Atkins, who last summer temporarily closed his and a partner's food trailer, The Drifter, in favor of opening a restaurant, said he's talked to Gaddy about possibly locating The Drifter in a food park here.

Art Nevarez, 27, who operates three Big Dog Hot Dogs trucks with his father, said he likes the idea of a food park.

"I think it needs to be located centrally where all people could access it," he said.

Nevarez and Peña said they'd also like to operate Downtown but the $2,000 annual cost of a permit is high, they said. Peña said not enough is known about how to get the permit or what it allows.

"If you took a poll of all vendors, I bet 95 percent don't even know about the rule" for obtaining a Downtown permit, Peña said.

Nevarez said he now operates one of his Big Dog Hot Dogs trucks at night on Paisano, near the Union Plaza District. He said it's outside the boundary of where a Downtown operating permit is required.

Even paying the $200 application fee for a permit is a "thinker" because getting the permit is not assured, Nevarez said.

"I think Downtown should be more open to food trucks. A lot of people have dreams and want to sell tacos" or other food, but then they go to City Hall and see all the requirements and costs, he said.

Hernandez, at Create Gourmet Eats, said he'll have to look closer at the Downtown permit process and cost to determine whether it would be worth applying for one.
Some of the vendors said they also have looked at operating at city parks. The city Parks and Recreation Department limits mobile food vending permits to one vendor, said Paula Powell, sports manager for the department.

A competitive proposal process is used for parks with athletic fields, she said. Permits cost $150 to $600 a year, based on park size, and one to 20 percent of sales revenue is also paid to the city, again based on park size, she said. Vending permits for parks without athletic facilities, such as San Jacinto Plaza, are awarded on a first-come, first served basis, she said. Special events permits are also issued.

The department plans to have its next competitive round of permits in 2013, she said.
Peña said he looked at the possibility of vying for a park permit, but decided it's not worth it because a permit is limited to one park.